Sony BRAVIA?s preroll mobile video advertising campaign to promote its HDTVs resulted in more than 300,000 downloads in 10 days.

The free mobile video service featuring fashion and Bollywood content was launched last month by 3rd Space, a global provider of mobile entertainment and marketing services for brand advertisers, with Reliance Communications, which claims to be India's No. 1 integrated telecommunications company with more than 92 million subscribers.

Targeted at Reliance?s 5 million GSM WAP customers in India, the free mobile video launched on R World, the Reliance-owned WAP portal, featuring 15-second pre-roll video ads from Sony BRAVIA.

The portal was promoted through WAP banner ads followed by an SMS campaign, in addition to links promoted on various mobile Internet pages.

BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture."

All Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America have carried the BRAVIA logo since 2005. The BRAVIA brand is also used on mobile phones in the Japanese market.

Impressive number of impressions
Reliance Communications claims that around 30,000 people see the Sony Bravia HDTV mobile ad every day.

Reliance launched the mobile marketing campaign with Sony during the October Diwali celebrations in India, sending 700,000 text messages to a cross-section of its mobile subscriber-base over ten days.

The result, according to 3rd Space, was an unprecedented 43 percent conversion rate with some 30,000 recipients per day following the embedded text link to browse the Reliance mobile internet site and download an average of two free videos.

The videos, between two and 3.5 minutes long and featuring international fashion shows along with Bollywood concerts and film clips, were all prerolled by a 15-second advertisement for Sony Bravia HDTVs.

3rd Space provided the mobile content and advertising support that enabled Reliance to deliver these videos free of charge to its mobile customers and free of integration and deployment costs.

The text messages were sent to Reliance customers with WAP-enabled handsets and data plans, and the 3rd Space platform automatically optimized video delivery to a total of 558 different phones to ensure that everyone got the best possible video quality. 

The 3rd Space is mobile
Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Warwick Hill, CEO of 3rd Space, London. Here is what he had to say:

What is Sony BRAVIA's strategy behind the mobile video ad campaign?
To reinforce brand, increase sales and achieve a better ROI than traditional print, media, Internet and banner ads used by many advertising agencies
 
What is the target demographic of the mobile campaign? Were the 700,000 recipients selected based solely on their handset type or was there a call-to-action to opt in?
We are keen to reinforce social responsibilities with our brands, which they admire greatly. Our unique technology supports every handset, within this first raft of the SMS campaign we have supported over 660 different models of handset.

Our technology means that no software downloads are required in order to watch content and the highest possible quality of video is provided natively on the device, meaning that we are not iPhone or smartphone-centric.

The SMS texts were sent to a cross section of Reliance customers across regions and demographics. There was no call-to-action to receive the text message.
 
What is the strategy behind the partnership between Reliance Communications and 3rd Space? Is this the first campaign of its kind executed by the partners?
Reliance understood our unique proposition from the embryonic discussions. Providing a solution for all customers, agnostic to device and budget, everyone can now enjoy rich content that was usually only ever available to those individuals fortunate enough to afford subscription services.

Relaince?s early-adopting strategies afforded us a well-respected platform with a household name in India to launch a never-before-seen advertising-supported model.

On the strength of this partnership, 3rd Space is gaining huge traction and gravitas with a further six operators addressing a potential market of nearly half a billion customers.
 
Can consumers opt-in to enroll in a Sony BRAVIA text-messaging club to receive SMS alerts? 
We offer the technology giving us unprecedented feedback and opt-in services along with the ability to target specific manufacturers of handset, differing times of day or days of week.

All of this has granular reporting, which brands haven?t experienced before in any other medium of advertising.  Brands are fast realizing we are in life-changing times and 3rd Space provides them with a platform no one else can.
 
Who are 3rd Space?s content and brand advertising customers? 
3rd Space is partnering with global brands that need a global footprint. 3rd Space?s unique proposition allows brands to get their messages out, not only in India, but China, Africa, Europe and the Middle East with a mouse-click.

Brands can upload adverts on the fly in a secure environment and be published within an hour to anywhere in these territories. Brands are beginning to realize that 3rd Space can provide better feedback across several continents reaching the mobiles and pockets of consumers with a hunger for interactive and engaging content.

3rd Space has relationships with leading media aggregators and broadcasters including IMG (sports), Shemaroo (Bollywood, games and children), Brand Kamaleon (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Fifth Gear and Dragon?s Den), TuneTribe (music videos) and direct relationships with content owners such as Major League Baseball and the World Wrestling Federation.